Smart Watches That Do the Thinking for You

There’s no denying that over the last half-decade, our relationship to consumer electronics has gotten more and more intimate. Recent reports on internet trends suggest that we’re checking our smart phones 150 times a day. It’s inconvenient to pull a smart phone out of your pocket that often, and it seems tech companies have learned something the watch world has known for over a century: strapping information to your wrist is comfortable and convenient.

In 2012, Apple superfans made news when they turned their iPod Nanos into watches. And fitness tracking wrist bands like the Jawbone Up, the Fitbit, and the Nike Fuel are practically everywhere. But watches are more than just easy to wear. They’re fashion statements that convey subtle signals about social status and one’s personality. Though the smart watch takeover can sometimes seem inevitable, tech companies entering the world of wearables are tasked with mastering something impossible to quantify: style.

iWatchApple is one company with a firm hold on the seamless relationship between aesthetics and innovation. Ever since the first iPod was released, they’ve changed the way we interact with technology. So when Apple reportedly hired TAG Heuer’s vice president of sales, Patrick Pruniaux, last month, the iWatch rumor mill was unstoppable. Many have suggested that Apple will announce the release of its first smart watch at a press conference on September 9.

Though nobody knows what the iWatch will actually look like, the TAG Heuer hire suggests that Apple is taking its timepiece endeavor seriously. Apple fans are eager to see the brand’s surely colorful, modern, ergonomic take on the iWatch.

PEBBLEIt’s been about two years since the first e-Paper smart watch, the Pebble (above), surpassed its $100,000 Kickstarter funding goal. Pebble is famous for its bold, quirky displays and handy applications that give its wearer access to music, a fitness tracker, and notifications (even when one’s hands are full). Still, the original model had the potential to visually weigh down the wrist, with a case measuring 52 mm x 36 mm x 11.5 mm. And until recently, color options were limited to just the basics. Newer models show stylistic promise, though, with reduced dimensions (46 mm x 34 mm x 10.5 mm) and sleeker lines.

Gilt x Michael Bastian x Hewlett-PackardMichael Bastian, the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year, and Gilt have teamed up with Hewlett-Packard to create a handsome men’s smart watch set for release this fall. Unlike many of the other wearables out there, this collaboration seems to have started with design first. Once the look and feel was in place, Gilt and Bastian brought in Hewlett-Packard to engineer the functionality supporting it: the watch promises to offer text messages, sports updates, calendar and appointment reminders, social and email notifications, and more.

Withings ActivitéOf all the current players in the smart watch market, the Withings Activité (above) seems to have generated the most buzz among watch purists. Many have called it a smart watch that plays dumb, in the best possible ways. By downplaying its techie pedigree—unlike the above timepieces, the Activité won’t flash a message or notification on the screen—the watch has classic appeal that’s strikingly wearable.

Many features are subtle, seeming to speak to the needs of standard watch wearers as well as the techerati. For instance, its “Connected Movement” (synced via Bluetooth with an iOS device) automatically adjusts to local time when changing time zones, bringing to mind prestige world timers as well as smart phones. Its large subdial, resembling a power reserve indicator, is actually linked to a digital tracker, and its scale from 0 to 100 represents one’s progress made toward activity targets like steps per day or hours of sleep.

This watch will likely appeal to those high-powered individuals who prefer a fine timepiece in the boardroom and are not a fan of the black rubber fitness bands they’ve tried to hide underneath their fresh-pressed cuffs.

Still, none of these watches address some essential drawbacks of the current playing field. Each of them, for example, are second-screen devices, dependent on the wearer already owning a smart phone presumably kept just as nearby as always. (Of course, the iWatch may prove to be a game-changer on this front, but it remains to be seen).

Additionally, there are are a few practical questions: Will there be frequent upgrades? Will we, as with our smart phones, need to buy new smart watches once a year or two? Can they be serviced easily? Can they be hacked?

Both the Gilt watch and the Pebble claim to have battery power that lasts a week (not so different from a mechanical watch’s power reserve). But will this prove true in the real world? After frequent charging periods, will the wearer start to leave it on the nightstand and go back to checking the phone 150 times a day?

It’s an exciting time for the watch-wearing public, and it will be interesting to see what fall’s big announcements will bring to the marketplace. Whether smart watches will move beyond toys for early adopters into necessary, everyday wardrobe staples remains to be seen.

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